THE EVALUATION OF THE REPERCUSSIONS OF WIND FARM PROJECTS IN THE SPACES OF THE NATURA 2000 EUROPEAN NETWORK: LEGAL CRITERIA FOR THE PROPER INTERPRETATION OF THE REGULATIONS IN THE LIGHT OF RECENT JURISPRUDENCE

The present work addresses the current situation of apparent conflict of interests between the installation of wind farms as a strategic and environmental commitment in the European Union's energy policy and the protection of environmental values in the spaces and environments of the Network Natura 2000, usual places where they are located due to the technical characteristics of wind energy. The normative evolution of the environmental assessment regime of the repercussions of wind farms in the places of the so-called European ecological network is analyzed in detail, from the Habitats Directive 92/43 / EEC until its incorporation in the current Heritage laws 42/2007 Natural and biodiversity, and 21/2013 of environmental evaluation, as well as the recent judicial pronouncements of the various instances until reaching the Supreme Court, and that have resulted in contradictory sentences on the installation of wind farms both in their doctrine and in their judicial decisions which also represent a worrying change in the application of the principles of legal certainty and technical discretion of the Administration. The Public Administrations competent in the authorizations of wind farms as well as the electricity companies promoting them are confused to the cancellation of authorizations of relevant wind farms in operation, sometimes also applying, based on an a priori trial, an erroneous doctrine related to the fragmentation of parks against their own environmental and electrical regulations, and without the judicial bodies clearly marking the path of how the.adequate environmental assessment. of them should be implemented in practice. The legal reason for all this is the existence of numerous undetermined legal concepts. in the application to wind farms of the provisions of the evaluation regulations on the Natura 2000 Network, offering in the present work interpretive solutions to each of them and proposing the necessary unit of judgment of the judicial organs in order to the necessary compatibility of both constitutional assets and interests.